Ask the Scholar

{
    "localId": "290019006",
    "label": "Report, United States Policy Toward Puerto Rico Since 1898, Division of Historical Policy Research, Department of State",
    "core": "doc",
    "dtoType": "document",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/290019006"
}

{
    "id": "290019006",
    "sourceUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/290019006",
    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Report, United States Policy Toward Puerto Rico Since 1898, Division of Historical Policy Research, Department of State",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/290019006",
    "collections": [
        "President's Secretary's Files (Truman Administration)",
        "Subject Files"
    ],
    "iiifBase": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/truman/hst-psf/602191/750357/750357-26-001.tif",
    "thumbnailUrl": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/truman/hst-psf/602191/750357/750357-26-001.tif",
    "largeImageUrl": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/truman/hst-psf/602191/750357/750357-26-001.tif",
    "imageCount": 242,
    "hasImages": true,
    "source": "import",
    "hasTranscription": false
}

{
    "url": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/290019006",
    "naId": 290019006,
    "levelOfDescription": "item",
    "productionDates": [
        {
            "logicalDate": "1951-08-01",
            "month": 8,
            "year": 1951
        }
    ],
    "recordType": "description",
    "ocrSource": "nara-archive"
}

{
    "seq": 96,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
    "url": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/truman/hst-psf/602191/750357/750357-26-096.tif",
    "mediaId": "57dae1edb416cb6b",
    "ocrText": "RESTRICTED\nCTED\n-174-\n-175-\nintroduce a bill to determine by a plebiscite if\n\"The conditions imposed by the Tydings bill\nthe United States should constitute itself a\nSoviet Republic. If\nappear to have been made with the intention of\nmaking the people of Puerto Rico choose between\nHe added that Director Gruening had \"apparently recom-\nindependence with ruin and starvation or a con-\nmended\" the introduction of the bill. Other spokesmen\ntinuance of the present unacceptable colonial\nfor the Coalition Party (whose components, the Republican\nstatus with the probability that the economic\nand Socialist Parties, were traditional proponents of\nexploitation, temporarily interrupted by the\nStatehood) joined in denouncing the bill, stressing that\nRoosevelt Administration, would continue.\nit would spell economic catastrophe; that it played into\nthe hands of a \"very noisy, aggressive, chauvinistic\"\nThis view was also shared by Senator Rafael Martinez Nadal,\nPresident of the insular Senate and chief spokesman for\nminority; that the Legislature had, on the contrary,\npetitioned Congress for authorization to draw up a State\nthe Coalition Party. 1 Secretary Ickes vimorously denied\nconstitution; and that the defects in the administration\nthe charge of duplicity, stating that although independ-\nof justice and electoral procedures could be remedied by\nence is the greatest boon we can offer\", the Puerto\nlegislation. 1\nRicans are not obliged to accept it.\nSince the Liberal Party had expressed. itself in\nPossibly as = result of the unfavorable reception\nfavor of independence at the hearings held on a Statehood\naccorded his initial independence bill, Senator Tydings\nbill in May-June 1935, its spokesmen, Senators Barcelo and\nin May-June 1936 sponsored a joint resolution providing\nMuñoz Merin, expressed no opposition to the Tydings bill\nfor the appointment of a committee, to be composed of\nin principle, but they were no less violent in denouncing\nmembers of Congress and representatives of the Depart-\nit than were the Statehood proponents, because of its\nments of State and the Interior, as well as of the four\neconomic features. \"Its economic clauses killed it from\ninsular parties, which should study the question of\nthe start\". Muñoz Marin declared in June 1936, adding\nindependence. The Committee on Rules, in its report on\nthat these clauses \"caused deep concern in Puerto Rican\nthe bill, recommended that (1) the committee investigate\npublic opinion. 12\n\"social, economic, and political conditions\", omitting\nspecific reference to independence; (2) that it be en-\nThe stringent economic disabilities of the bill even\nlarged to include representatives from the island's\ninduced the belief among Puerto Rican leaders that these\nAgricultural Association, Free Federation of Workingmen,\nand Chamber of Commerce; and (3) that the report be sub-\nprovisions constituted a calculated stratagem to enable\nmitted before April 20, 1937.3 The Senate, however, did\nthe American Government to continue the \"colonial\" rule\nby confronting the Puerto Ricans with a choice between\ntotal economic ruin and objectionable but tolerable\nexisting status, in the assurance that the latter alter-\nnative would be chosen. Senator Muñoz Marín expressed\n1\nNew York Times; Apr. 25, 1936, P. 2.\nhimself as follows:3\n2\nNew York Times, Apr. 29, 1936, P. 9\n3\nCongressional Record, vol. 80, part 7, May 25, 1936,\n1\np. 7835; ibid., vol. 80, part 8, June 1, 1936, P. 8460-61;\nvol. 80, part 8, June 1, 1936, pp. 8563-64.\nIbid., vol. 80, part 7, May 13, 1936, pp, 7376-77;\nHouse Report No. 2965, 74th Congress, 2d Session,\n2\nHearings\non S. 227, p. 39.\n3. Washington Post, Apr. 25, 1936, p. 16.\nDESTRICTED\nRESTRICTED"
}